sad

Last night as we drove home from our second Thanksgiving dinner with family  I was composing my post about all that I'm thankful for this year.  Topping my list was the health of my close friends and family. 

Unfortunately, all that changed when we got home.  Okay well it didn't change, I'm still thankful for all the same things.  It's just that my grateful feelings turned to sadness in the blink of an eye.

We had a lot of stuff to get out of the car and put away and I'd asked the girls to get their pajamas on.  Caelan had fallen asleep on the drive home and was already transferred into bed and all tucked in. We were late getting home.  Later than we should have been.  Not so much because of the girls getting in bed, but because we have to lock the chickens up at night. 

All the thoughts of things I was thankful for on my way home disappeared from my mind in an instant when I returned to the living room to find the girls crying on the couch.

Something had killed our chickens.

Our chickens have a coup that we lock them in at night to keep them safe from critters.  During the day they're free to roam all over our yard.  When the sun sets they put themselves to bed in their coup and rarely go exploring again.  So once it's dark we lock them in so nothing can get them.  Last night we got home well past dark and it was too late.

It's going to be a very somber Thanksgiving day without our four feathered friends.